92 allen's naturalist's library. 



stick, the bird rises also, the whirr and vil^raticn of its pinions 

 being distinctly heard and felt. Its ordinary flight is soaring 

 and stately. On leaving the territory of one pair, the attack 

 is taken up by another, and so on, for the Great Skuas do 

 not nest in close proximity. In fearlessness this fine bird is 

 unrivalled ; it has been seen to beat off the Sea-Eagle, and no 

 Raven stands a chance against it. For this reason the pro- 

 prietors of the land protect it ; Colonel Feilden says that in the 

 Faeroes they also do so on account of the estimation in which 

 the young are held for food ; but the fishermen shoot the old 

 birds for the sake of the bill (for the neb-toll), feathers, and 

 flesh, the latter making excellent fishing-bait. The stomachs 

 of a pair which were shot were full of the flesh of the Kittiwake, 

 and the castings consisted of the bones and feathers of that 

 small Gull. Heysham has noticed an adult female on the 

 coast of Cumberland, which allowed herself to be seized while 

 she was in the act of killing a Herring Gull. It also feeds on 

 fish offal, and I found by the side of a nestling some dis- 

 gorged but otherwise uninjured herrings of large size." 



The late Dr. Saxby has given the following note on the 

 species in his "Birds of Shetland " : — "The Great Skuas are 

 usually seen singly or in pairs, except during the early summer, 

 when they are assembled at the breeding-grounds ; upon these 

 occasions I have seen considerable numbers about the same 

 spot, but even then they were chiefly in pairs, except when 

 they became mixed up by accident. At such times, when the 

 young are about, the birds become very daring, sometimes even 

 knocking a man's hat from his head. A dog has no chance 

 with them, for they buffet him so severely in their rapid swoops 

 that he soon has to retire discomfited. I once had four of 

 them sailing in circles close round my head as I stood upon 

 the crow^n of the highest hill in Unst, Saxaford, and could 

 almost touch them with my gun, the sound of which, by the 

 w\ay, did not seem to cause them much alarm ; perhaps they 

 divined how^ little they had to fear so far as I was concerned. 

 The female is rather lighter in colour than the male, and is 

 by far the bolder of the two. During the breeding-season the 

 Skua will come to such close quarters with an intruder that I 

 have known a man strike at one with a tether, and entangle 

 it and bring it to the ground." 



